I hope as you get into photography, that you don’t think you can become a good photographer overnight. I have never seen one yet that could just understand all the little things that make a photograph good. And good, I mean that is worthy to call it a “professional photo”.
Let’s look at some ideas that will help you along the way:
- Learn to live with the camera you have. Once you start understanding your current camera, you will realize that it can take pretty good photos. Learn how it works and find out it’s limitations so you can work around those.
- Understand what it means to really keep your camera clean. I see photos posted on social media and the first thing I say: “Why don’t you clean your lens?” It will look so much better if you are aware of the need to keep your camera clean for better photos. Get in the habit of cleaning it often.
- Learn to take your camera everywhere. If you don’t have it, you can’t take pictures. How often have you said to yourself: ” I wish I had my camera with me”. If you want to get good at photography, you have to partner with your camera everywhere.
- Practice, practice, practice. Once you learn a new concept, go out and practice. You have to practice a concept until it becomes natural.
- Stretch yourself by learning how to take photos in “manual mode”. Once you master all the different things about manual mode, you will understand the “why’s” of a picture.
- Get close to your photos. Learn to fill the frame. It’s amazing the difference you will have in your photos, if you just get closer.
- Lighting! You have no photo if there isn’t light. Now, to learn the different colors of light, what a flash will do, how to control the flash, using bounce flash, trying different colors of light bulbs, etc. There is a lot to learn about lighting. Learn what different angles of light can do, etc. This is where creativity and professionalism meet.
- Composition: Learn the rules of composition, and you will find the artist come out in you. I don’t think anyone will have good photos that doesn’t learn the rules of composition. (Note: rules of composition blog coming out soon).
- Share. Learn to share your photography with others. Submit your photos on social media or create a blog and you’ll find fellow photographers are always eager to help and share their own experiences, too. In fact, 123PhotoGo has a place where you can share your photos with others. See how they compare with others, learn to get different ideas of photos. On Facebook go to: 123Photogo group. (Here’s the link if you would like to share your photos: https://www.facebook.com/groups/162729727828362 )
- Continue to learn from photographers. Or from a school, or online course, or just follow well known training sites, such as this. Be a regular scholar of photography.
I hope this gives some idea of the necessary steps to becoming a good photographer. When you eat, breathe photography, you will find the joy in it.
